8 Rules of PCB Design

A PCB is the abbreviation of Printed Circuit board. All the components on the circuit board are held in position by drilling holes or Pads in the demarcated areas on the board, and then soldering the components into place. The copper tracks which take the place of traditional wires are more effective and more resistant to damage. The copper tracks place a rule as link among all the components, forming a circuit underneath the board. Keeping some simple rules in mind can avoid that we have to contact you after you place an order to resolve PCB design issues.

Before PCB design, please remember 8 rules as below:

·Everything starts with the circuit design. Without a circuit there is no need for a PCB. In the old days most circuits were hand drawn and later captured electronically. In today’s world of modern computing, the circuit design is capture directly into a schematic. For the sake of clarity we’ve added this in the PCB design rule.

·Always lay out your board design on a fixed grid or a snap grid so that the components and tracks will be able to “snap into place.” It is important to use the grid to make sure you have enough space on the PCB board material for all the components and it will allow you to have fluid copper tracks rather than bits and pieces all over the place.

·Please make sure you provide an indication of the layer definitions in the copper, such as a caption: “TOP” in the top layer, “BOT” in the bottom layer.  Missing or incorrect labeling is the most frequent cause of problems, since many Layout programs permit mirrored data output! For this reason, please label your circuit boards always with TOP and BOT in the copper! Correct labeling with TOP and BOT in the circuit board’s copper provides information about the layer definition, and also for the layer orientation!

·Track sizes will vary depending on the type of board you are designing, the purpose of the board and how much conduction is necessary.  It is always possible to use different sized tracks to allow for bridging or tightly spaced tracks.

·Place each route and each component in their grid off the board then when you are sure of its position, place them on the circuit board individually in order to maximize your efficiency and reduce your margin for errors.

·Do not scale your data – Please keep all data be scale 1/1 (100 %).

·Use the same units (mm or inch) in your Gerber & Exelon output files as in your CAD PCB design software. This will eliminate conversion or rounding errors.

·Lastly, you shouldn’t be sending Eagle BRD files to board houses anyway. That leaves too many judgment calls for the board house to make. Create the Gerber files yourself, then the board house knows what to do, and you can take the files to any other board house too. Most board houses don’t want Eagle files, or charge extra for doing the conversion to Gerber for you.